Agree. It’s kind of sad to see Jeb go after Rubio on the missing votes and not going to work tactic. The same can be said for any current job holder who has ever sought higher office. It was, indeed, a desperate measure. Jeb’s done. Cruz roasted the CNBC partisans. Priceless. So did Christie. Fantasy football? Really?

If it was a serious debate Rubio would have been a loser. It was a legitimate question about his attendance, it gets asked of almost every candidate who has a current job, and he didn’t answer it, instead he played for the sound bite. Those guys know these aren’t serious debates. It’s theater. If they wanted a serious debate they would have C-Span moderate. But nobody wants that. This is politics as a game show. No one should be surprised. How many people would watch these if they were talking about detailed policy positions? It is so disingenuous for Cruz et al to complain about this. Most of them don’t even HAVE detailed policy positions.

Taped it, watched today, but spit my coffee out listening to the questions. Collectively the CNBC panel was as unprofessionally a debate moderation as could be imaginable.
3J good assessment but would reverse candidates.

Cruz – Railing on the moderators and the mainstream media a good way to win points and dominate the next day’s discussion. But don’t think I didn’t notice you sidestepped the uncomfortable debt ceiling question

Rubio – Drove that knife into Jeb like a regular Brutus. That’s a soundbite moment, but the whole night I felt he was thin on actual policy (granted he may just have been a victim of the size of the debate field)

Fiorina – a 3-page tax plan for the largest, most complicated economy in the world? Like the CNBC moderator said “is that going to be in really small type?” I agree that we need to simplify the tax code, but simplicity for simplicity’s sake should not be our goal. The only thing a 3-page tax plan is going to do is open up a ton of easily exploitable loopholes.

Trump – I think this was his best debate. He was more reserved than the first two times around and, as a result, it made folks like Kasich seem unreasonable for butting in and yelling about things.

Carson – anyone else notice how his lighting was different? I had low expectations for Carson in this one and he didn’t even meet those. I get that economics is not his strong suit, but when someone says “hey we did the math on your tax plan and it doesn’t add up” and your only response is to say “I didn’t say 10%, I said 15%,” you should check to make sure that the math works with 15% (here’s a hint, it doesn’t). Also, everyone knows he straight up lied about the shady herbal supplement company. The theme of the Carson campaign has been “I didn’t say (insert crazy thing here), I said (insert different, but still kinda crazy thing).”

Christie – more assertive, which is good since he’ll probably be the guy the establishment turns to when Jeb leaves this race to do a bunch of cooler things.

Kasich – you can tell he’s flabbergasted that someone with his resume has gained zero traction. Look, John, I hear ya, Ben Carson is legitimately crazy and Trump’s deportation idea is bonkers, but you’ve just got to accept the new reality we live in.

Rand – seriously, dude. Why are you still in this race?

Jeb – oh Jeb. oh, dear sweet Jeb. He just looks defeated. He said he wanted to run joyfully and you can tell that every ounce of joy he has has been ground up and snorted by Donald Trump. Mitt Romney had the same look in the early stages of 2012. I don’t think Jeb has the wherewithal to power through like Romney did. His donors have to be skittish after last night.

Huckabee – for a man whose weakness is “playing by the rules” he sure does seem hellbent on ignoring the Constitution and the latest set of SCOTUS rulings. Also, you shouldn’t quip about dieting when the name of your book is “Guns Grits and Gravy” and it looks like you intentionally put weight back on because “eating healthy and exercising” is all part of Michelle Obama’s communist mind control agenda.

I could not help but note the irony of Jeb criticizing Rubio for missed Senate votes. Hmmm…I don’t recall Jeb being critical of his brother, who was re-elected governor of Texas in 1998 and not long after was off and running for president on the taxpayer’s dime for two years…basically running for a second term as governor with no intentions of serving out that term.

Student debt: so we take a group not so good at math, reading, financial planning or delaying gratification and the government guarantees them easy money…..what could go wrong ?
Carly said the government creates problems, then swoops in to resolve them.
Another area Georgia is number one or close in.

Worst debate I think I’ve ever witnessed. Any three voters taken randomly from anywhere in the US would have come up with a better set of questions than what we got from CNBC. They didn’t take their responsibility seriously at all. Who are these people anyway?

That said, I don’t think that gives the ‘blame the liberal media’ crowd a pass. There were 3 flat out lies I caught from Rubio and Carson. Should have been called out for it; I guess there were no journalists in the room.

I guess if we’re doing post-debate wrap-ups here I’ll cut and paste from an email about the candidates below.

As for the CNBC critiques, it’s not about GOP candidates expecting to be able to duck “tough questions”. I WANTED them to get tough questions. I want each of these candidates to be vetted. What they face will only get worse as they get closer to the nomination, and that will double again once it is secured.

What they got instead was snide ridicule. I’ve moderated debates up to Congressional levels. I’ve seen my share of ridiculous answers. While I believe the moderator/questioner can push for a full answer or point out an obvious mis-direction, it’s NOT the questioners job to fact check in mid-debate. It’s certainly not the job of the panelist to pre-judge the answer, and back their rebuttal into the question before it was asked.

The result is that they made Donald Trump look sympathetic. Just think about that for a moment.

CNBC had the standing to really bring out the contrast between the candidates in a way that would resonate with Republicans. This is the cable network I watch most often for my news. They break down news of all types into bottom line dollars and cents impacts. THIS is the talent I hoped they would bring.

Instead, their correspondents, many of whom I respect and trust for this news, used the occasion to mock and ridicule. Worse, they were woefully unprepared. (When you have to ask the candidate where you sourced your information? Really?).

CNBC was such a loser last night that even many left of center folks and other MSM outlets had to call them out for it. Last night, they represented a blight upon the profession. With the exception of John Harwood I’ll suggest that we shouldn’t claim conspiracy/bias when incompetence will do. The rest of the correspondents don’t do political news. They were out of their element.

As for the candidates:

Rubio won.

Trump and Carson had great nights, thanks to CNBC. They could have taken them both to task over policy. Instead, they chose to mock and gave them sympathy that was unearned.

Christie and Cruz had great moments/soundbites.

Fiorina did OK, but the expectations were so high for her after last time that “held her own” doesn’t do much for her.

Huckabee? Sure he was Huckabee. and I’m sure both of Huckabee’s people think he did super.

Kasich – seems to have done worse in each successive debate.

Rand…might want to check in on his Senate race.

Jeb. Had the most to prove tonight. And he may have proved it. For the side suggesting it’s time for him to clear the deck for a better GOPe candidate.

I just cannot see Jeb throwing in the towel with all that money and all that infrastructure propping him up. His campaign GDP is probably greater that 50 countries. He has the resources to pursue any necessary path; attack, massive TV, utilize ex-CIA,… He may even lose a couple of early contests but I suspect he will prevail in the end.